Slammer is "Off"?

[Ben]

Oh, no, I tell a lie, Catapult's still there.

That was certainly meant to go though at some point?

It was shut for aggeesss, and it was going to just go, but, no, it's still there.

OK, slight change, Slammer's the only good one since Catapult has restraints that don't stay where you click them, and that then crush you, G Force style <//3

 

[Hixee]

^Yeah, Catapult wasn't great. The sensation was good, but the restraints hurt.

Not actually done Slammer. Got to the top of the tower at GF and it broke! Never bothered to try and get back on it. Will at some point though!

 

[CoasterCrazy]

This really isn't looking god now...
Many more rides are now 'off' including:

-Samurai
-Tidal wave
-Time voyagers (for fright nights)
-Neptune's beach

And of course The Swarm....

 

[Rob]

Slammer looks to be pretty much ok. All cables are present and the ride seems to be fine. It was down at this time last season with pretty serious problems in the booms (metal fatigue). I miss it, it adds something different to the park I feel, it's not amazing but it is really intimidating, and looks pretty incredible.

Will be gutted if it leaves, certainly, Alton should pull out Submission before Slammer goes anywhere. It's really not that bad. Even reliability wise, it's ok, far better than Rush was in 2007/2008. It just has the occasional issue, they just don't seem to be too rushed to fix it, ever.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

This really isn't looking god now...
Many more rides are now 'off' including:

And of course The Swarm....

I'm sorry, how on EARTH is a ride opening NEXT year off? It's only bloody half built!

 

[Idlewild]

Slammer is "Off"?

Slammer was up when I went last week. Must have been down at least two months.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

^^What I was saying is that you can't help wanting to go on Swarm, as you can (probably) see it throughout the whole park...but you can't!

 

[Ben]

Fairly sure I'd rather NOT go on Swarm at the moment...

I'm sure it'd be fun, until you come off the end of the track and die.

 

[tks]

Many more rides are now 'off' including:

-Neptune's beach

Pretty sure this "attraction" has been off since the dawn of time.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

^^As in you want it to be finished...
^Neptunes beach is closed for the season now, and so is time voyagers, which limits the number of attractions in the park, especially for children...

 

[Colossus]

Who really cares about Neptunes beach or Time Voyagers anyway? Young Children can go to Chessington or Legoland both of which are just down the road.

 

[MouseAT]

Who really cares about Neptunes beach or Time Voyagers anyway? Young Children can go to Chessington or Legoland both of which are just down the road.

We've had this discussion recently. Suffice to say, it boils down to the park at least providing (or more accurately failing to provide) something for smaller kids to do if they get dragged along with older family members who are there for the major rides.

Right now, the big ones have fun on the thrill rides. The little ones will inevitably spend the day being bored.

 

[Thekingin64]

People under 1m get in free as well. You can expect something to be not as good when you get it for free yet everyone else pays. Like Spotify or AVG, there's free versions of both but their definatly not as good as the payed versions.

 

[Colossus]

^^That`s very true, don`t get me wrong I am not saying Little ones should`t have fun at parks but Thorpe just is not aimed at young children anymore, look at the closure of Octopus Gardens and the future closure of Canada Creek Railway. but as you say it would be hard if there`s a group that contains both thrill seekers and young children. For me if I was taking small children to a park and I still wanted the thrills I would go to Alton Towers, which provides both well. Perhaps even Flamingoland. Thorpe park is the last place I would take them.

 

[furie]

The thing is, if you'd just paid £35 for your 1.1M tall kid to come into the park with you, you'd be pissed find they can only do three rides all day.

Yes, people should be aware of height limits on rides and stuff, but people are - by and large - very stupid and don't. They see an advert and make huge numbers of assumptions.

I don't disagree with the way Thorpe is moving, I just think they should either make it free to under 1.4M, or be incredibly blatant in all their advertising that the park is not suitable for say, the under 10's.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

I mentioned this idea on another forum, but perhaps Thorpe are being a BIT too much like Six Flags Magic Mountain was a few years ago... You know, when they built lots of big rides, forgot that families provide more income, then nearly fell apart...

And saying that families can just go to Chessie or Lego isn't the point here... Because if you have kids over 6 they might think Lego is too babyish for them, and if you have kids over 13 (and 1.4m) they might not want to go to Chessie for the same reason...

Families involve EVERYONE, hence why Towers is a reasonably successful family park from that viewpoint, because it has a ride for everyone, and of course Disney for the majority of rides allow the family to ride together... It's a tricky balance sure, but Thorpe need to be careful with their next few steps... Don't want to keep investing heavily and then realise that all your guests lack the disposable income to actually spend money in your park...

 

[furie]

However Benin, Thorpe are very successful with their current method, so why change? They have a huge catchment area that is easy to reach by those without access to cars. What they're doing (if they're making money) isn't a bad thing in terms of business. Magic Mountain I think is a very different case to Thorpe Park.

Obviously I support parks being family friendly, and I'd personally love Thorpe to be more so. However, as much as I'm sure my family not visiting affects their profit margins, excluding families seems to be working for them.

So I don't return there, but they make money - sucks to be me :lol:

 

[gavin]

**** family friendly.

Personally, and selfishly, I'm glad that Thorpe are bucking the trend for the "family" market and heading further into becoming a purely thrill park.

 

[Darren B]

I kind of agree with both statements above, However my suggestion would be for TP to rip out any existing 'kids' rides from the park and make it exclusively for thrill seekers, Then focus the attention onto Neptunes Beach/Depth charge, turning this space into a childrens area, on a level with say PP world/ Nick Land, And i dare say it wouldnt be that difficult for Thorpe to market, they could easily go along with the junior thrill seeker ploy or even the childrenslandname@TP like Paultons and PBB have.

This surely settles both corners of the argument, Should TP be purely aimed at thrill seekers? YES, but should there be something on site to entertain the kids under a different brand image? YES. it could work....

 

[AltonTowersFan]

Any news about Slammer?